The College of Dental Medicine at Georgia Health Sciences University is home to a new virtual private network (VPN) created specifically to help universities and private researchers share data related to patent-pending antimicrobial technology from Kimmerling Holdings Group (KHG) and fiteBac SkinCare.

The invitation-only VPN was launched April 13 with the goal of enabling researchers to disseminate information more quickly and speed the advance of application development by eliminating the need to wait on phone calls, e-mail, or snail mail to receive information about the latest developments.

Researchers who want to participate may submit an application for review before they will be allowed access to the VPN. Once they have been accepted, researchers will be able to post or start new discussion topics and upload documents, pictures, videos, links, and more to the system. All other researchers in the network will be able to immediately view the information, comment on it, and add to it.

"The system is user friendly and requires very little training to use," said Kirk Kimmerling, president and CEO of KHG and fiteBac, in a prepared statement. "We have developed a Protocol Template Guideline which helps researchers quickly and easily enter findings." The forum operates under very strict security rules to protect the information shared through the VPN.

According to Kimmerling, the technology is broad and extensive and will lead to the formation of many groups. The objective of the project is to enable collaboration and move research forward much faster, and ultimately lead to improvements in oral health and systemic bodily health. According to KHG and fiteBac, the technology also has potential in medical, plastic, composite, coating, and other applications.